What does every spiritual tradition actually teach about suffering and loss?

Mirabai lived inside Hindu devotion, but she noticed something universal: every tradition that takes the examined heart seriously agrees on this—suffering is real and unavoidable, but it's not meaningless. It's the soil where depth grows. Buddhism says suffering arises from attachment and is the gateway to compassion. Christianity finds redemption in bearing witness to pain. Judaism insists on lament as a sacred act. Sufi poets, like Mirabai herself, saw longing as proof of love. Indigenous wisdom traditions understand grief as a way of tending relationship—to land, ancestors, the sacred. What connects them? None say "get over it." All say: *meet it consciously*. This changes everything. When grief becomes a spiritual practice rather than a personal failure, you're no longer alone with it. You're part of an ancient conversation about what it means to be human. Mirabai's contribution was specific: she showed that devotion—the willingness to love without guarantee of return—is itself the answer. Not happiness. Not avoidance. But the courage to let your heart break open and stay open. Every tradition recognizes this courage. When you grieve this way, you're not broken. You're practicing one of the deepest human arts.